When Did It Start?

By Joe Whitaker

Production automobiles have been customized by their owners since they were first invented. Rest assured that the day after the first few 1920 Chevrolet’s were purchased, parts were modified and switched to make the car more to the liking of the owner.

Until 1955, the real customizing world belonged almost completely to Ford. Why Ford? They were cheap, plentiful and many carried the easy-to-hot-rod flathead V8. Take a look at your early car magazines and you will see that all of the performance aftermarket ads were dedicated to Ford products. As a result, the hot rods and customs were mostly Fords with an occasional Chrysler, Cadillac, Buick or Hudson power plant thrown into a Ford…that is until 1955.

The January 1955 issue of Hot Rod Magazine (HRM) already featured advertisements for performance exhaust and a feature article that hinted of great things to come for the all-new small block Chevy. Still, it took a while for Chevy to begin to unseat Ford as the affordable performance leader. When did customizers start changing the ’55 Chevy? The July 1955 issue of HRM includes a letter and photo from a proud fellow in NJ who had tossed his original grille in favor of a homemade custom; “…I am one of the many asking what happened to the ’55 Chev grille” (hinting at common complaints and a general dislike of the original ’55 grille design). In his letter he stated, “I now can answer that question by saying this is what the grille could look like if the pencil pushers in Detroit had only used all that skill that they have long been noted for.” No doubt thousands of readers were already customizing their own ‘55’s and even more read this letter and decided to customize theirs.

Soon, Edelbrock began making performance 3x2 intakes for use with Rochester carburetors and the horsepower wars were on! Chevrolet began to go racing and started winning; quickly gaining the attention of street racers and custom car builders alike.

One of the first of many Chevy engine swaps into other brand cars was featured on the cover of HRM in February 1956 where a ’55 265ci engine was installed in a 1940 Ford. This was big news, as the engine bay of any rod considered a “performance” vehicle was reserved for any other type of V8 except the Chevy…until then. It wasn’t until January 1957 that HRM featured a four-page article on “Customizing the Late Chev’s” by none other than George Barris. Still, classic Chevy feature cars were few and far between in the car magazines until late in the 50’s.  

It’s hard for us to imagine now, but there really was a time when Chevrolet was not at all popular with anyone except for those who saw cars as basic transportation and not as a source of enjoyment…that is until 1955!